OT girls beat Central for Halton senior Tier 2 basketball title

OT girls beat Central for Halton senior Tier 2 basketball title

Michael Ivanin, Special to the Post

Dani Nafekh (left) of Oakville Trafalgar and Danielle Haney of Burlington Central, leading scorers for their respective teams on Friday, faced each other in the Halton high school senior girls Tier 2 championship game at Sheridan College. Nafekh scored 16 points to lead the Red Devils to a 43-30 victory over the Trojans, the only Burlington team among eight in four Halton high school finals in Oakville.

Oakville Trafalgar Red Devils knew their third match-up of the season against the Burlington Central Trojans would be tougher than the first two. And it was.

OT used a bigger, stronger roster to eventually wear down the game Trojans, winning the Halton high school senior girls Tier 2 basketball championship 43-30 Friday afternoon at Sheridan College.

For the Red Devils, it was the third trip to the final in the 10 years coach Joyce Vaive has been there, and the second win.

“(Central) came out loosey-goosey and I warned our players,” said Vaive. “We had major problems in the first quarter.”

Central, which lost 53-27 to OT in regular-season play, solved the Red Devils full court press in the first quarter by hitting some spectacular low-percentage passes and shots to actually lead 14-13 near the end of the quarter. Danielle Haney supplied six of her team-high nine points with two three-pointers.

“As the game went on we went back to the full court pressure,” said Vaive. “I think that made the difference. It makes us more aggressive.”

A veteran and a rookie supplied the offence for the Oakville side, with Dani Nafekh, a Grade 11 student who will be back next year, and Grade 9 blue-chip prospect Olivia Wilson scoring 16 and 12 points, respectively.

As soon as Central took the first-quarter lead, Wilson and Nafekh hit consecutive baskets for the Red Devils, and a third, this time from three-point range by Nafekh, gave OT a 20-14 advantage heading into the second quarter.

From there, Central’s deficit increased to seven at the half, eight by the end of the third quarter and eventually, 13 at the final buzzer.

“(Central) was definitely our biggest competition this year,” said Nafekh, who plays rep basketball in Scarborough and is hoping to land a scholarship to a U.S. school when high school ends in 2014.

Stephanie Desgagne contributed six points to the Devils’ cause while Sasha Bertusa and Chantelle Andree also had six each for the Trojans.

Central coach Wendy Merritt was proud of her squad, which kept attacking throughout the contest.

“I have a bunch of workhorses,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re up by 30 or down by 20, they still treat every game as if they’re going to win it.”

Haney, who came back for an extra year of high school this season, said it’s difficult playing an imposing Red Devils lineup.

“We have a good post defence, though,” said the Mississauga Monarch rep player, who hopes to play university basketball next year if it works out with academics. “Even though we’re not that tall we can box out.”

OT’s Halton Tier 2 win, going undefeated in league play, leads to questions of whether the Red Devils might have chosen to play Tier 1.

“If I had known back in June — when you make these decisions — what I know now — yes,” said Vaive. “We had no idea what our incoming Grade 9 players would be and ended up getting a tall post player (Wilson, as a starter) and No. 7 and 8 players on our depth chart. Hopefully we’ll be back to Tier 1 next year.”

Wilson is part of the reason Vaive is considering Tier 1.

“She has huge potential,” said Vaive. “Very co-ordinated, runs the floor well, rebounds (well) but not just because of her height. She tracks the ball and positions herself well. I look forward to working with her the next three years.”

And point guard Nafekh?

“She’s our quarterback,” said Vaive. “She leads by example, a hard worker. A great outside shooter and probably the best passer I have ever had the privilege of coaching in all my years at Oakville Vytis and at OT.”

While the Halton Tier 2 title ends OT’s season, Central is still alive. The Trojans play St. Thomas Aquinas in Oakville Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 3:30 p.m. in the first step toward a possible Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations berth at the AA level.

Click here for a chart of Halton senior girls basketball finals since 2000.